Bank of America said to cut about 2,100 jobs

TRIMMING:：The job cuts and office closures reflect the bank’s efforts to streamline its facilities and align its cost structure with market realities, a spokesperson said

Bloomberg

Wed, Sep 11, 2013 - Page 15

Bank of America Corp, the second-largest US lender, will eliminate about 2,100 jobs and shutter 16 mortgage offices as rising interest rates weaken loan demand, two people with direct knowledge of the plans said.

About 1,500 of the workers helped process home loans, said one of the people, who asked for anonymity because while affected employees were notified on Aug. 29, the scope of the plans had not been publicly announced.

About 400 worked in a suburban Cleveland call center, and 200 dealt with overdue mortgages, the person said.

The reductions are scheduled to be completed by Oct. 31, the people said.

Mortgage lenders are paring staff as higher interest rates discourage refinancing and cast doubt on how long the housing market rebound will last. Wells Fargo & Co, the biggest US home lender, plans more than 2,300 job cuts, and JPMorgan Chase & Co may dismiss 15,000.

Bank of America’s pending home loans fell 5 percent at the end of June from the previous quarter.

The changes “reflect our ongoing efforts to streamline our facilities and align our cost structure with market realities,” said Terry Francisco, a spokesman for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank.

The lender targeted three offices in California as well as locations in Virginia, Washington, Texas and Ohio, according to employee discussions held last month, the people said.

Some will be offered work elsewhere in the firm, the people said.

Bank of America’s staff totaled more than 257,000 at the middle of the year.

Chief executive officer Brian Moynihan is again scaling back on operations gained in the 2008 takeover of Countrywide Financial Corp, once the biggest US mortgage lender.

After shuttering reverse mortgage and correspondent lending units in 2011, the firm targeted smaller ex-Countrywide offices to close or consolidate, one of the people said.

Regulators and lawmakers blamed Countrywide for lax standards and predatory lending that contributed to the housing bubble and the crisis that followed, which has cost Bank of America more than US$45 billion. Countrywide was acquired under Moynihan’s predecessor, Kenneth Lewis.

“We’re pretty much through the refi boom, and we don’t know yet what the purchase business will look like,” said Nancy Bush, founder of NAB Research LLC, a bank research firm in New Jersey. “Countrywide was everywhere, so Bank of America’s particular challenge is to go from this hot-mess mortgage company to a rational one.”

The cuts will leave about 25 mortgage offices, one of the people said.

The single biggest site affected is in suburban Cleveland and had 1,000 employees, the person said.

That part of the reduction was reported last month by the Plain Dealer.

Most of the dismissals are in addition to the 30,000 announced in 2011 as part of Project New BAC, Moynihan’s plan to reduce expenses, one of the people said.

“We do anticipate some slowdown in mortgage production resulting from recent increases in interest rates,” Bank of America’s chief financial officer Bruce Thompson said in a July 17 conference call.

The cost of a 30-year fixed home loan rose to 4.57 percent last week from 3.35 percent in May.

Refinancing made up 70 percent of the mortgage market during the first half, slid to about 50 percent recently and could fall further in coming months, Franklin Codel, head of mortgage production for San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, said last month in a staff memo.